The present invention relates to cutting mechanisms, and especially to a cutting mechanism for rapidly and accurately cutting metal soffit material, or the like.
In the past, soffits were commonly made from lumber, or were cut from sheets of plywood. Presently, soffit material is available in thin metal sheets, such as aluminum sheets, formed in lengths that must be cut off when fitting onto a house. The cutting is done at on-site locations. Typically, the soffit material has a predetermined shaft, which might have a V-shaped ridge running along the middle portion thereof and shaped at either end to allow the soffit material to fit onto the house. The soffit material may be prefinished, such as primed and painted on one side. The material must be cut neatly in order to give an attractive appearance to the home. Cutting of the material is done by marking and sawing the material, or may be cut with tin snips, which, however, tend to give a rough edge to the material, especially when cutting through the shaped portions of soffit material. Thus, present techniques for cutting the material are either slow or give an uneven finish.
The present invention is directed toward a soffit cutter for cutting aluminum preformed soffits rapidly and cleanly without requiring additional filing or straightening of cut surfaces.
There have been a variety of prior art sheet metal shearing devices working on different principles, some of which include specially shaped blades or supports. Typical of such shearing devices is the Jasinski U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,401, having a fluid actuated cutting blade for cutting sheet metal, and the Rayner U.S. Pat. No. 2,219,602, of Oct. 29, 1940, for a shearing tool having cutting blades for cutting corrugated sheet material such as corrugated iron and having a corrugated support for the material during cutting. In the Bailey U.S. Pat. No. 2,692,647, a shingle cutter uses a shearing action for cutting shingles along the edge of a building roof, while the Teplitz U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,295 has a hydraulically actuated siding shear having a shaped blade. Other patents for shearing devices may be seen in the Bustin U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,894, and in the Tucker U.S. Pat. No. 2,588,999 for a reed hat leather trimming machine. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,134,285 to Green, a siding cutter is provided using a shearing action mounted to an adjustable frame for cutting preshaped siding material, and which has a hinged blade which co-acts with two die blades to facilitate cutting the siding at various angles.